It is known that if a vehicle is subjected to sudden external forces, such as those caused when an outer surface of the vehicle is impacted by an explosion, damage to objects and injury to occupants within the vehicle can occur. Thus, in the field of armored vehicles, it is known to provide vehicles with belly armor against explosion/blast taking place under the vehicle (e.g. when the vehicle is positioned on the ground in its standard position, and either located or passing above an explosive device).
In general, most such vehicles comprise a floor, forming the bottom portion of a space in which the occupants are contained within the vehicle. Under the effect of such an explosion/blast, the floor tends to deform in an upward direction. The purpose of belly armor is to reduce, as much as possible, the deformation of the floor under the forces of an explosion/blast.
A common explosive threat used against a vehicle, such as an armored personnel carrier, is a mine planted on a ground surface, above which the vehicle is likely to pass. When the vehicle passes over the mine, the mine detonates, causing extremely high forces and shrapnel to be projected at a belly of the vehicle. The forces applied on the belly can cause at least a part of it which is closest to the source of the explosion to be violently projected in a direction towards a floor of an occupant compartment in the vehicle, for example a passenger compartment containing passengers. Additionally, motion of the belly can cause it to apply a moment to connected side walls of the vehicle, which in turn are cause them to bend. Such bending of the side walls can cause undesired motion and/or damage of the floor and or detachment of the floor of the compartment, to which the side walls are directly or indirectly connected. Such undesired motion and/or damage and/or detachment of the floor of the compartment can cause injury to occupants within the compartment and damage objects therein.
In addition, since most vehicles have a length greater than their width, the moment of inertia is such that deformation along the longitudinal direction (i.e. between the front and the rear of the vehicle) tends to be greater than deformation along the width direction (between a left side and a right side of the vehicle).